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AKS cost analysis pricing

chameldoyon 20 Reputation points
2026-03-03T20:54:42.9666667+00:00

Hello,

Is the cost analysis extension for AKS clusters free of charge? The documentation lists the requirement for a premium/standard tier cluster, which softly implies that it's included within that tier, but it's not very explicit.

Thank you

Azure Kubernetes Service
Azure Kubernetes Service

An Azure service that provides serverless Kubernetes, an integrated continuous integration and continuous delivery experience, and enterprise-grade security and governance.

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  1. Jilakara Hemalatha 12,755 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
    2026-03-03T21:27:47.3666667+00:00

    Hello,

    The AKS Cost Analysis extension is free to install and use once your cluster meets the prerequisites. It requires an AKS cluster on the Standard or Premium tier (Free-tier clusters are not supported), but there’s no separate charge for the extension beyond the standard cluster management fees.

    The extension relies on Azure Monitor and Log Analytics, so any usage of these underlying services (such as data ingestion or retention) is billed according to standard Azure pricing. You continue to pay only for the Azure resources your cluster consumes (VMs, storage, networking, monitoring).

    Microsoft documentation confirms that AKS Cost Analysis can be enabled via the Azure Portal or Azure CLI and provides detailed cost breakdowns for nodes, pods, namespaces, and other Kubernetes resources directly in Azure Cost Management, without introducing a new billing meter. The Standard/Premium tier requirement exists because these tiers include the production-grade monitoring and SLA capabilities that Cost Analysis depends on.

    Reference: Free, Standard, and Premium pricing tiers for Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) cluster management

    Best practices for cost optimization in Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)

    Cost management for Kubernetes

    Monitor Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)

    https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/monitor/

    Hope this helps! Please let me know if you have any queries.

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  1. SUNOJ KUMAR YELURU 18,246 Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2026-03-04T08:20:05.18+00:00

    Hello @chameldoyon,

    The cost analysis extension for Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) clusters is not free of charge; it requires your cluster to be on the Standard or Premium tier.

    The Free tier does not support cost analysis features. Specifically, to enable cost analysis, your cluster must be using either the Standard or Premium tier, which are designed for production workloads and come with associated costs for the resources consumed. Additionally, enabling cost analysis involves deploying an agent that consumes some CPU and memory resources, further implying that there are operational costs involved in using this feature.

    If you wish to downgrade to the Free tier after enabling cost analysis, you must first disable the cost analysis feature.

    If this answers your query, do click Accept Answer and Up-Vote for the same. And, if you have any further query do let us know.

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